Eleven Philadelphia grocery and convenience store owners are facing felony charges after state investigators say they submitted nearly 10,000 fraudulent invoices to Pennsylvania's WIC program, siphoning off almost $1 million meant to feed low-income mothers, infants, and young children. Nine of the eleven defendants were taken into custody and arraigned on Sept. 30, with two still at large as the case moves forward.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced the felony charges against the grocery and convenience store owners, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Investigators say the group submitted more than $1 million in fraudulent reimbursement requests to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, with the state ultimately paying out close to $985,000 based on those claims. Agents who combed through thousands of receipts determined that paperwork tied to the claims had been forged and fabricated between 2021 and 2025, the station reported.
The alleged scheme exploited how WIC vendors are supposed to operate: store owners are required to submit invoices from approved distributors documenting the food and infant formula they provide to program recipients, who then use those benefits to stock their pantries. Instead, agents say they identified nearly 10,000 fraudulent reimbursement requests, of which close to 9,000 were actually paid out. All 11 defendants now face felony counts of theft by deception, forgery, and tampering with public records, per the same report.
The Largest Alleged Payouts
Felix Sosa, the 35-year-old owner of El Paisano Express Food in South Philadelphia, faces the largest alleged haul in the case — prosecutors say his business received $342,183.94 based on false claims. Sosa was taken into custody on Sept. 30 and held on $25,000 bail, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Musa Barry, owner of Uncle Musa Grocery in Southwest Philadelphia, is accused of submitting $226,557.88 in false claims and was also taken into custody on Sept. 30. As of Oct. 1, Barry had not yet retained legal counsel, the Inquirer's report noted. Two additional individuals connected to businesses that allegedly received $105,880.04 and $42,834.16 in false claims had not yet been taken into custody as of the charges being announced, per NBC10 Philadelphia.
Several smaller alleged payouts round out the case. Prosecutors say Ramon Fernandez, owner of Compare & Save Supermarket, received $70,907.09 based on false claims; Carmen Luciano, owner of Carmen Grocery, Inc., received $60,922.44; and Margarita Collado, owner of Kendra Mini Market, received $55,982.66. Amaury Espinal Gomez, owner of Liberty Mini Market, Inc., is accused of receiving $40,120.61, while Raquel De La Cruz and Patxi De La Cruz, co-owners of Tioga Food Market 1 Inc, allegedly received $39,864.83 together. Francisco Garcia, owner of Garcia Super Deli Market, faces the smallest alleged sum in the case at $773.38, according to the same NBC10 Philadelphia report.
A Program Meant to Reach Thousands of Families
“These business owners, for years, intentionally defrauded a state program designed to promote wellness for mothers and their children,” Sunday said, as reported by NBC10 Philadelphia. The 11 accused owners ran small corner stores and neighborhood groceries scattered across the city, including South Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia, the Inquirer reported.
While WIC is federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, administrative oversight and vendor reimbursement processing within Pennsylvania fall to the state's Department of Health, the Inquirer noted. That structure means neighborhood stores like the ones named in this case serve as the front line connecting federal nutrition dollars to local families. In 2024, the program served 180,885 participants statewide, reaching roughly 61% of the eligible population of low-income pregnant or postpartum mothers, infants, and young children, according to Thriving PA. Children ages 1 to 5 make up the largest share of beneficiaries at 55%, followed by infants at 23%, the same data show.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Push
This case is the latest in a string of public-benefit fraud prosecutions under Sunday, who took office as Pennsylvania's attorney general in January 2025 after previously serving as York County's district attorney. On Aug. 4, 2026, federal prosecutors announced charges against 19 defendants in schemes involving more than $4 million in bogus Medicare and Medicaid claims targeting Philadelphia home health services — a case Hoodline covered at the time. And in May 2025, his office secured state prison sentences of up to five years for two operators of Broad Street Pharmacy in South Philadelphia following an investigation into a $12 million Medicaid fraud scheme, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
Retail-level public-benefit fraud isn't unique to Philadelphia. In a separate federal case reported in March 2026, prosecutors highlighted a four-year prison sentence for a Chicago-area convenience store owner involved in a multi-store scheme that fraudulently redeemed $19 million in WIC checks. It remains unclear whether any distributors or wholesale suppliers played a role in generating the false invoices at the center of the Philadelphia case, or whether additional business owners beyond the two still at large will be taken into custody.
